The bill would target state universities that use taxpayer dollars for additional grief counseling or other things – like “cry rooms” – to help students cope with election-related sadness. He also wants to increase the criminal penalties for protesters who block highways, as some demonstrators did near Iowa City last week.

“That’s incredibly dangerous. What if someone had been trying to go to the hospital or was in an emergency and you had these spoiled brats blocking interstate 80?” he said, adding he encourages dissent and protests, but not while endangering innocent people.

Kaufmann told Pete Hegseth that the idea for the bill came about last week when he watched how universities were responding to the election results.

He said he got reports about “cry rooms” being set up for students at universities that already face rising tuition costs.

“That’s a waste of taxpayer dollars and that also doesn’t prepare kids for life. In life there’s winners and losers and when your car breaks down, your kids get sick or you have to take a second job to pay your mortgage, you don’t get to go to a cry zone, you don’t get to pet a pony. You have to deal with it,” he said.